I write about the television business. Why networks cancel your favorite shows, why sure things don’t go to series, why the Nielsen ratings still matter, if it concerns the small screen, it concerns me too. I've studied media since college and have been covering television since 2009 for sites such as FilmSchoolRejects.com and ScreenInvasion.com. In that time I've learned it’s one of the most fascinating entertainment mediums to explore. It’s a medium that runs a million miles a minute where one week’s smash hit can be another week’s failure. It takes a trained eye to understand its complexity, and that’s what I intend to do.

The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

Review: FX's 'Married' Hates Idealized Love, But Not In A Fun Way

As we discussed recently, something that makes FX’s You’re The Worst interesting is the way it handles its rebellion against the Hollywood idea of love and romance. In the series, the two main characters defiantly stand against false-relationships by being 100% honest with one another, and because of that, the series becomes a very fun watch because the characters know who they are and don’t care if you like it or not. It’s this attitude that’s also attempted by the network’s other new comedy offering, Married. However, unlike the former, this series doesn’t achieve the same level of fascination in its rebellion against what it means to be in a “happy relationship.”

Married follows the exploits of Russ and Lina who, after three kids and many years together, are living a boring life… and therein lies the problem. One would imagine the idea of the couple believing they have a dull life would lead to a series where they try to re-find themselves, but instead, the couple’s marriage is just presented as is, and with no signs of wanting to change. Never is there an acknowledgement of the couple not being happy, and without that, there’s nothing to make the series anything more than a scripted, single camera mokumentary.

Nearly all of the characters in Married stumble around and complain about their lives, and never is there a moment where one of them stands and says “I’m gonna try and change things.” Typically, the structure of a series like Married would be Russ and Lina spending years trying to recapture their “spark,” only to realize it was never gone, and they’re actually better off now than they were when they first met. But that moment of hope is, seemingly intentionally, ignored over and over and over again. Even in the pilot episode, a plot that would normally lead to great humor – especially from a network like FX – just feels dull and played out because there’s no real reason for it to exist.

Instead of being interested in the lives of Russ and Lina, we just look upon them with anger because they’re never offering anything worthwhile to viewers. At least when the characters in You’re The Worst complain about their lives, they do so in a matter that makes it appear as if they have an opinion on life and the world at large. The characters in Married are simply bland, and at many times emotionless, their crass humor is crass for crass sake, and their personalities – at least in the first four episodes – are directionless.

Compared to a series like FX’s other bleak-toned comedy, Louie, it’s easy to see where Married fails. Even when C.K. mopes about his fictional life, it’s done so with purpose, and often times there are people surrounding the fictional version of the stand-up to tell him why his moping is useless and unproductive. That reactionary character of reason does not exist in Married. Instead, what there are, are character that not only support the couple’s behavior, they encourage it.

Perhaps there are some that would like to watch a series about dull people living dull lives while constantly complaining about how dull it is, but there are many that don’t. If Married is meant to be a reflection of middle-class America on the level of Malcolm in the Middle or Shamless, it’s failed. If Married is meant to be a crass comedy that doesn’t care what you think of it, it’s failed. No matter how you slice it, Married is a series with little redeeming qualities, especially when there are better versions of its ideas already running on the same network.

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